Bomb threat evacuates 3 schools

Thursday

Apr 10, 2014 at 12:01 AM

STOCKTON - Three Lincoln Unified schools were evacuated early Wednesday morning after threatening phone calls were received at Sierra Middle School and at the Stockton Police Department. A male caller said there was a bomb at Sierra, according to officials.

Joe Goldeen

STOCKTON - Three Lincoln Unified schools were evacuated early Wednesday morning after threatening phone calls were received at Sierra Middle School and at the Stockton Police Department. A male caller said there was a bomb at Sierra, according to officials.

Following several sweeps through Sierra by police and school district personnel that found nothing suspicious, the "all clear" was issued about 8:30 a.m., allowing students and staff to return to classrooms.

In addition to Sierra, Sture Larssen High School and three wings of Lincoln High were evacuated. Students arriving at the schools during the 7 a.m. hour were sent out to the track and baseball field at Lincoln High, along with the entire staff from Sierra. The school day begins at 7:50 a.m.

"Everybody relocated to the field. They were all back in class for second period within five minutes" after the Sierra campus was declared safe, Tatum said.

A statement sent out by the district to families said:

"Although this was not believed to be a credible threat, this action was taken out of an abundance of caution. Stockton Police Department responded quickly and performed multiple sweeps to ensure safety on campus. Additional resources included a bomb sniffing dog."

Concerned parents, however, flocked to the school to take their children home for the day. Amanda Covello heard through word of mouth there was a large police presence at the school and also got a text message from her daughter.

"We came to pick up our kids to feel safe," Covello said, waiting her turn with other parents outside the office after 9 a.m. to check her daughter out of school.

"He told us about the bomb and that is when we went out to the school and notified the school staff. The staff and our officers went out to search, and the school elected to evacuate. We did not locate anything," Silva said.

He could not say whether the caller was an adult or juvenile or if there are any suspects.

"The call will be part of the investigation. We will be listening to it to identify who called in," Silva said.

Tatum said that in her 15 years with the district, bomb threats are a rare occurrence and this is the first one that involved Sierra this school year.

"Obviously, we take threats to our school sites very, very seriously," she said.

Contact reporter Joe Goldeen at (209) 546-8278 or jgoldeen@recordnet.com. Follow him at recordnet.com/goldeenblog and on Twitter @JoeGoldeen.